A Blog About Stock Photography. John specializes in shooting stock photos including a mix of funny animal pictures with anthropomorphized pets (including dogs, cats, cows, elephants, monkeys and more), and concept stock photos for business and consumer communications. John's site includes interviews with photographers and leaders in the stock photo community as well as numerous articles on photography, digital imaging, and the stock photo business.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Traveling To India

A Budhist monk stands before a colorful back lit curtain in a remote Tibetan Bhudist Monastary in Ladakh, India.

Off To India
Well, I’m off to India for a three-week trip. I am hoping to
add a variety of material to my archives for stock photo production. Of course
I will be looking for typical travel photos, but more importantly I will be
looking for raw materials for new concept imagery. Landscapes, building
interiors, small business testimonial-style portraiture and urban scenes will
be some of what I am looking for. I have a somewhat different approach to making money from travel photography.

Refreshed Creativity

Once a year I like to take a trip to some exotic location.
It gives me a much-needed break from my typical computer-heavy schedule. Not
only do I add raw materials to my archives, but I get mentally refreshed as
well. Being in a new and entirely different environment than I am used to, and
also escaping from my everyday concerns, combine to help me refresh my
creativity as well.

Internet Cafes

My Internet access will be sporadic so I probably won’t be
posting any new blog material, but then one never knows. If I can I will. I know that finding Internet cafes is
no problem, but usually they are crowded and claustrophobic and not my favorite
place to conduct business.

A Travel Photography Impediment

I am under no illusions that I am a travel photographer.
Believe it or not, the biggest impediment I have to travel photography is shyness!
I have a strong tendency to feel like I am intruding when I take pictures of
people I am not paying to model for me. I know, it’s silly, but that is
something I struggle with even though my experiences of shooting people during
my travels have been good. Oh well.

Learning To Be A Better Travel Photographer
I have made a little progress. I have been lucky enough to have friends like Nevada Wier who is a consumate travel photographer and helped me to overcome at least some of my phobia of approaching people. I think one thing that makes her a great travel shooter is her genuine interest in people. Show that interest and doors open!

Enjoying The Experience

While I have a passion for photography there are times when
I just want to enjoy my experience without the “filter” of a camera. There have
been times when I have deliberately left my camera in my hotel room in order to
resist the temptation to move into “photo mode”. Of course, that is kind of a
bold move because as of that ever-present possibility of some incredible shot
that will me missed.

Too Darn Lazy!

Another fault of mine is that I am too darn lazy to record
all the essential caption information when shooting travel images. I get back
home and a few months down the road get around to editing…and can’t remember
where I was when I shot the various photos…or which model releases belong to
which people. I know, I know, there are a million apps that can solve those
problems for me. But I’m not taking my iPhone with me…and besides…I just don’t
want to bother with all that stuff. I’m afraid I am stuck just being a
conceptual photographer…at least for a living.

Equipment: Traveling Light

For those of you interested in equipment considerations, I
am traveling light! I am taking my Canon MKIII, three 16 gig cards and one 12
gig card, two LaCie Rugged Drives, my 24-105 zoom lens, my 16-35 zoom, and a
Canon 100-400 zoom. I am bringing my Gitzo carbon fiber tripod with a ball head
(geez…I don’t remember what model tripod or even what brand of ball head I
have…but it is a small one purchased with weight in mind. I hate carry a lot of
weight around. I will also be lugging around my laptop, a 17inch Apple MacBook Pro with a 250 gig sold
state drive. Finally, I will have
a Canon 580 flash. That’s it! Okay, you may have noticed that I am not taking a
back-up camera, but I am taking my partner Stephanie and she is bringing her
Canon 5D, so if worse came to worse we could end up sharing a camera. Hey, more
time to live the experience rather than photographing it!